What was a grueling six month regular season, and then an enthralling, if not taxing, eight week postseason, came down to one final game Friday night.  One game, sixty minutes, thirty six hundred seconds to determine who would skate around Detroit's Joe Louis Arena as the Stanley Cup Champions. 

It turned out to be an epic contest that wasn't truly decided until that thirty six hundredth second ticked off the clock.

The Pittsburgh Penguins overcame all the odds to post a 2-1 victory over the Detroit Red Wings before a packed house at the Joe Friday night, taking the Stanley Cup for the first time since 1992, when current owner Mario Lemieux was captain and centering for a guy named Jaromir Jagr.  Their current head coach, Dan Bylsma, was playing his senior year at Bowling Green.  Sidney Crosby wasn't even five years old.  Evgeni Malkin was almost six.

In doing so, the Penguins shattered several trends.  They became the first team to overcome 2-0 deficits in two playoff series in one season, and the first team to win two game 7s on the road.  The Penguins are also the first team in any pro sport to win a road Game 7 in the championship series (NBA Finals, World Series, Stanley Cup Finals) since the PIttsburgh Pirates did it in the 1979 World Series.  They became the first team to win the Cup one year after losing in the finals since the Edmonton Oilers in 1984, a team that was blessed with talent such as Wayne Gretzky, Jari Kurri, Glenn Anderson, Mark Messier, Paul Coffey, Andy Moog, and Grant Fuhr.  Throw in that it was the first time a team won a road game seven in the Cup Finals after the first six games were won by the home squads since the 1971 Canadiens, and you get an idea of how rare this feat actually was.

All in all, the Penguins did it with grit, determination, and hard work.  It's almost easy to forget that Bylsma took over for the fired Michel Therrien following a 6-2 debacle against the Maple Leafs in Toronto back in February.  The team suddenly seemed to click after that, going 18-3-4 over the final 25 games of the regular season to finish second in the Atlantic Division.  Sergei Gonchar returned after missing 57 games to help the power play and the defense.  Key acquisitions like Chris Kunitz, Craig Adams and Bill Guerin gave the team a veteran presence, having been there before, to help counter the youth and relative inexperience of Crosby, Malkin, Jordan Staal and others.  They battled through adversity, including being dumped three times on Detroit's home ice, scoring just two goals in those contests, including a humiliating 5-0 thrashing in game five that had the Pens on the proverbial ropes.

However, like Rocky Balboa, they came back swinging.  It took a gritty performance on home ice in Game Six, where the Penguins took a 2-0 lead early in the third period, only to watch Detroit get within one with more than half the final frame to go.  Sharp goaltending by Marc-Andre Fleury and heads up play by defensemen like Rob Scuderi kept the Wings from getting the equalizer, sending it back to the Motor City for the penultimate game of the series, and the season.

After a scoreless first frame, the Penguins took advantage of a miscue by Brad Stuart, allowing Maxime Talbot to snap one between Osgood's pads in the opening 90 seconds of the second period, to take a 1-0 lead.  Conn Smythe winner Evgeni Malkin, who led all postseason scorers with 36 points after winning the Art Ross Trophy for the most points in the regular season, assisted on that tally.  Just under nine minutes later, it was Talbot again, snapping one just under the crossbar to complete a 2 on 1 rush to give the Pens their two goal lead, much like game six.  The Penguins were physical, they forced Detroit into long shifts, they hit the Wings, and controlled the tempo of play.  They did it without Sidney Crosby, who played just two shifts in the second period, and just one in the third, after being crumpled like the front end of a Yugo hitting a brick wall at 85 miles an hour on a check by Johan Franzen.

Still, without their captain, despite the 1-5 record in Detroit the last two Finals, despite being 0-3 this time around in Detroit, the Penguins perservered.  They killed off an early third period power play, as Detroit kept their shifts long, leaving their key players seemingly out of gas by the time they generated any offensive pressure.  Osgood managed to keep the Penguins from scoring on a few good opportunities to keep the game close, but the Wings couldn't light the lamp.

That is, until 6:07 remained in the third period, when unheralded defenseman Jonathan Ericsson beat Fleury with a knuckleball from just inside the blueline to trim the lead to one goal.  Fleury got a piece of it, but not enough to keep it from crossing the line, setting the goal light on, and revitalizing the crowd.  Three hundred sixty seven seconds of regulation stretched out in front of both teams like an endless desert, the Cup a mere oasis of relief and satisfaction.

The Wings had their chances.  Niklas Kronwall beat Fleury, only to hear the unforgiving clang of the iron as he rang one off the crossbar with 2:14 remaining in the stanza.  Then in the dying seconds, a shot went wide, only to carom off the boards to four time Cup winner and All World defenseman Nicklas Lidstrom.  Fleury was out of position and there was a gaping hole for Lidstrom to shoot at. 

As the saying goes, he who hesitates is lost.  It may have only been a split second before Lidstrom fired the puck toward the net, but it was enough for Fleury to dive across the crease and take the puck off his stomach as the horn sounded, touching off a celebration by the Penguins and leaving the sellout crowd of 20,066 in silent disbelief at what had transpired.  After all, this was the defending champs we were talking about.  A team that was gunning for their fifth Stanley Cup in twelve years.  A team that was 11-1 at home in the playoffs going into the decisive game seven.  Yet all that was for naught.

Also for naught was Marian Hossa's signing of a one year deal with the Red Wings.  Hossa, who was acquired by the Penguins from Atlanta before the trade deadline last season, was a member of the Penguins who watched the Wings celebrate winning the Cup last season.  He took a less lucrative deal to go to Detroit in the offseason, thinking it was a better chance at winning the Cup.  Fate and irony combine to make a cruel mistress.  Hossa ended up living the same nightmare, only in a different uniform this season.

So, we close a chapter on what has been an up and down, scintillating roller coaster ride of an NHL season.  The Penguins are the champions of the world, and for this night, there is gloom in Hockeytown.  Fear not though, fans of the Red Wings, be you die hards or bandwagon jumpers:  next season is just three and a half months away, and the whole thing starts again.

As the song by Journey goes:

Working hard to get my fill,
Everybody wants a thrill
Paying anything to roll the dice,
Just one more time
Some will win, some will lose
Some were born to sing the blues
Oh, the movie never ends
It goes on and on and on and on

Don't stop believing folks.